Check Your Local Water Quality

By clicking on the Scottish Water logo below, you will be transferred to Scottish Water's Water Quality Search application on the Scottish Water Website. Here you can find up to date water quality results for your local area.

Please note that you will leave the DWQR website and DWQR is therefore not responsible for the content displayed. If you have any comments or queries about this you should contact Scottish Water directly.

Can I Trust Scottish Water's Data?

All water samples are collected, transported and analysed under strictly controlled conditions. Scottish Water's scientific services are accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). DWQR also monitors Scottish Water's compliance sampling programme and undertakes occasional audits and inspections. This is the same data that DWQR used to display using the interactive map, but because you are viewing it directly on the Scottish Water website it is possible to keep it far more up to date.

What does the data show?

Scottish Water undertake over 150,000 tests on samples taken in supply zones every year. This is in order to demonstrate that the water Scottish Water are supplying complies with the Regulations. These Regulations set a “Prescribed Concentration or Value (PCV)” or standard for a wide range of substances or parameters that may be present in the water in tiny quantities. Further information on the parameters and their significance may be found here: Ten Key Parameters. It is recommended that you read this section as it will help you to understand what the data means.

Where are these samples taken from?

The data is from samples taken from consumers’ taps at randomly selected properties throughout each zone at a frequency that varies according to the population of the supply zone. The results are taken as being representative of the water quality across the zone, however in practice certain parameters may vary significantly within a supply zone. Plumbing within the property can also affect the results, especially where lead, copper and nickel are concerned.

My supply zone has had a failure – should I worry?

The Quality of Drinking Water in Scotland is very high, but from time to time samples do fail the regulatory standard. These standards are set with a wide margin of safety, and some are concerned with the appearance or taste of the water. All failures must be investigated by Scottish Water and remedial action taken where necessary. Every failure and the associated investigation is reported to DWQR, who will also investigate where this is appropriate. Each failure is also reported to Environmental Health Officers at local authorities and Health Professionals who will take a judgement as to whether the failure has implications for public health and require action to be taken to protect consumers if necessary.

The vast majority of failures that occur are relatively minor and should not be taken as an indication that your water supply is unsafe to drink.

Smaller water supply zones may have relatively few samples taken for each parameter every year. When a failure does occur in these zones it can appear worse than a single failure in a larger zone where a single sample represents a smaller proportion of the total. The same effect can be seen in the year to date data where a small number of samples have been taken early in the year.